Recently, Shanghai Pongbot Technology Co., Ltd. has received tens of millions of dollars of Pre-A round of financing led by Qualcomm Ventures, and this round of financing will be mainly used for market expansion, new product research and development, etc.

In fact, as early as November 2020, Qualcomm, Shanghai Sports Institute, Shanghai Pongbot Technology Co.

In fact, as early as November 2020, Qualcomm announced a partnership with the Shanghai Sports Institute and Shanghai Pangbut Technology Company Limited during the Expo, *** with the promotion of 5G + AI-enabled smart sports sustainable development.

That said, with the continuous progress of AI artificial intelligence and science and technology, the development of robots has long been not limited to the field of industrial manufacturing.

By combining with artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, big data and so on, it has long entered various industries and is moving towards an increasingly intelligent and diversified trend.

You think it's just the "brain" that's losing out? In fact, a lot of competitive sports you are not rivals ...

1

Artificial Intelligence robots will become coaches?

In 2015, the Chinese Table Tennis Academy established the Table Tennis Sports Intelligence Research Center.

In the face of four major pain points: the difficulty of getting started in table tennis, the high cost of coaching, the difficulty of finding people of comparable level to play against, and the difficulty of correcting wrong movements, it is hoped that mechanical arms that can be used as coaches can be made.

01 Intelligent project first landed to promote China's new program

In 2017, the Chinese Table Tennis Academy and Xinsong cooperation in research and development, the first domestic table tennis robot with independent intellectual property rights and productization, was officially unveiled at the 19th China International Industry Fair.

The following year at the World Conference on Artificial Intelligence, a mechanical arm holding a table tennis paddle was shown.

It was able to hit the ball back as accurately as a human being, and at the end of the year, it was on CCTV with Deng Yaping, winning acclaim for its quick response to Deng's high-speed and curved balls.

And as early as 2018, in the CCTV broadcast of the program "Wit and Wisdom", the ping pong queen Deng Yaping also took her son Lin Hanming against the ping pong robot named Pangbot.

In recent years, the world of table tennis has seen a pattern of "Asianization".

China, as both a table tennis powerhouse and a responsible power, should help other regions improve their competitive abilities and contribute to the globalization of table tennis.

Therefore, it is important to establish and promote a set of intelligent and interactive Chinese programs to enhance the technical level of table tennis.

It is a good direction to improve the ecosystem of the table tennis market and build out a whole new system in the table tennis field.

In the face of the five major pain points of the current table tennis market - lack of scientific training methods, lack of human resources, lack of industry standards, unprofessional coaching, and thin R&D team.

Combining intelligent table tennis training robots with table tennis skill level testing and table tennis teaching programs can solve the pain points in the table tennis market.

02 "black technology" future can be expected

Table tennis serve robot Pombert M-ONE is regarded by team members as the "black technology" in the project, which is the first one with independent intellectual property rights and has been put into use in large quantities. It is the first table tennis robot with independent intellectual property rights and has been put into the market in bulk.

As the third generation of the Pombert table tennis robot, it was selected in July 2020 for the highest award at the World Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

It was unveiled at the China International Fair for Trade in Services in September, and went on to become a hit at the third China International Import Expo in November.

The third-generation table tennis serving robot not only has a humanoid serving method, but also has applications such as a motion trajectory analysis module and a motion analysis module, which can be conveniently interacted with through a cell phone APP to provide real-time feedback on training data.

The current Pombert can meet the needs of professional training, but also for beginners to carry out teaching, the students and coaches of the upper body affectionately called it "Pom coach".

The movie "Crown" has a line: "The future of sports, rely on technology."

"Coach Pang" has improved the training efficiency of the national team, for the systematic and scientific training to help, and has been unanimously praised by the athletes and coaches.

Robot in the accompanying athletes training, the coach can simultaneously take into account several tables, all-round observation of the movement and pace of the athletes, to give a more comprehensive guidance, which in the past is completely unable to do.

Specifically, Pompey's tee-ball robots include three major advantages: first, Pompey's tee-ball robots have the ability to mimic the human ability to feed multiple balls, restore the natural tee-ball action, and help trainers to feed multiple balls for training.

Secondly, connecting the mobile APP can provide customized training solutions, using artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze the trajectory of table tennis movement.

Markerless human movement recognition optimizes playing posture, can intelligently adjust the difficulty of the course, and the training data can be synchronized with the cloud and can be displayed at any time to achieve self-review.

Furthermore, the Pompert serve robot does more than just feed multiple balls to train, for professionals, the Pompert serve robot trains by feeding multiple balls.

Help its training table tennis technology stereotypes, for amateurs, provides a smart, interesting mode of participation, will realize the application of multiple scenarios.

However, the introduction of "Pang Coach" is not smooth sailing. The first generation of robots is not fast enough, the rotation is not well recognized, and the degree of anthropomorphism is low.

The second generation of robots is facing high production costs, the problem of enterprises can not make ends meet.

The third generation of robots is not easy to come by, on the body and Xinsong Robotics have devoted a lot of effort to this.

In fact, as early as ten years ago, the Chinese Academy of Ping Pang took the table tennis robot research and development as an important scientific research, and got the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education, the former president of Professor Zhang Jiancheng's careful guidance.

The research and development of table tennis robots is a new breakthrough in the construction of the discipline, which will lead to the comprehensive development of artificial intelligence in sports and make positive exploration for the development of the integration of industry and education in the school.

Of course, behind the "black technology" lies the wisdom and power of the students.

2

Meet the era of intelligent sports

In the system of black science and technology intelligence, one is artificial intelligence, and the other is the intelligent earth.

The smart era is characterized by an intelligent system, which is at its core. Intelligent systems have three pillars, dynamic perception, intelligent recognition, and automatic response:

First of all, it is to be dynamic perception, that is, like our eyes, ears, and other five senses, but the QR code, the bar code is not dynamic, they are pre-done and placed there.

So the intelligent system, we have to rely on sensors, to achieve dynamic perception, and the sensor is to replace our five senses.

Secondly, it's about smart recognition, and recognition means analyzing, which is equivalent to our brain.

This depends on the analysis of big data, which has two aspects, one is the text big data, which is readily available.

The other is physical big data, which is obtained through measurements, such as weather forecasts, our human body to see the ultrasound, CT, to pay more attention to the laws, models, methods of physical processes.

Discovering the laws through the laws is half the battle.

Finally, we need to react automatically. Nowadays we have basic information platforms, the Internet, the Internet of Things, integrated circuits, chip technology, and communication technology 5G, which can greatly improve the automatic response.

For example, a ping-pong playing robot, is a typical intelligent system, because first of all it can see the ping-pong ball, which is dynamic perception.

It has to figure out how the ping-pong ball is going to bounce, and it's its reaction to hit it back.

Technological innovation has energized traditional training. On top of that, AI can be a fair and impartial examiner.

Intelligent level test for table tennis can exclude human factors and ensure the fairness, effectiveness and objectivity of the test.

The China Table Tennis Academy and Pompert Technology have joined forces to create the "Pyle Table Tennis - SCD TT Super Coach Program", which was held on January 22 and 23, 2021, with an open experience class.

The new year debut of the Table Tennis Smart Training Center attracted the attention of many parents and children.

By making Smart Table Tennis Training Centers available around the world, more people will be able to quickly master table tennis skills and experience the joy of the sport.

With Artificial Intelligence, table tennis has been given the wings of imagination, and table tennis robots have a smart "brain" to make table tennis more fun.

High-level athletes can only be guided one-on-one by coaches in multi-ball training, and that consumes a lot of energy.

Amateur table tennis enthusiasts can't get professional guidance and feedback just by watching videos, so where do you find a partner who can feed you the ball at the same level as you?

And robots provide a customized training environment for trainers.

Anyone can customize the type of spin, the position of the drop, and the training session, and with Pompert, a strong consistency of training on a particular movement stimulates the limits and quickly creates a strong muscle memory.

Coupled with intuitive data feedback, Pompeii gives trainers a clear picture of where they are going wrong and which movements need to be strengthened.

The table tennis serve robot and coaching robot will never be the end of the road for Pompert, who designed the table tennis robot with the intention of using technology to help athletes train and promote the popularity and development of the sport.

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